In cases of alledged child sexual abuse, often there is no criminal case which is leading both to parents who have lost children claiming innocence, some are, some are not is the best way I can put it, having listened to many. But it also means that the perps guilty are not dealt with, at all. I really think this needs shaking up. In cases where possible help the parents and keep the family together, but at least have due diligence throughout the system so that there are checks and balances.

This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.

New Hampshire social workers are all too familiar with how opioid abuse can push children into foster care. They see it all the time.

The chain of events is often the same: After being approached by social workers, addicted parents continue to overdose or start dodging them. State officials deem the home unsafe and seek a court’s permission to remove the children.

Then comes a knock at the family’s door.

It’s a last resort, reflecting what appears to be a stark trend across the state: Since 2010, the number of child removals in which substance abuse was a factor has nearly quadrupled. The number of children entering out-of-home care has nearly doubled. And between 2012 and 2016, the number of children born drug exposed tripled.

Yet directly connecting child removals to the source of the problem is nearly impossible. That’s because in New Hampshire’s electronic child welfare database, there’s no way to specify opioids – or any other drug – as a contributing factor.

That’s also true in other states hit hard by the opioid epidemic – even where lawmakers have highlighted the issue publicly.

These gaps make the task of developing family welfare policies a guessing game, said Elissa Glucksman Hyne, a senior policy analyst at the child welfare nonprofit Children’s Rights.

“It’s hard to have enough substance abuse services for these families if we don’t have an accurate idea of how many families are actually being affected by opioid abuse,” she said.

Blame the knowledge gap on a patchwork of requirements and technologies. Caseworkers can’t always prove the presence of drugs in a home. Some have to conduct short substance abuse assessments on their own; others get help from treatment agencies. And although evidence of specific drugs often is noted in narrative reports, those details don’t end up in state or federal statistics.

The result: America’s foster care data is severely lagging behind the opioid crisis’ deadly momentum. Citing unreliable state reporting, the federal Children’s Bureau, part of the Administration for Children and Families, didn’t start publicly specifying why children were removed from parents’ custody until 2015. In a report published Nov. 30, parental drug abuse contributed to more than 92,000 removals in fiscal year 2016 – 34 percent of the nation’s total. Still, no one can say what types of drugs were involved.

State officials say tracking the problem conjures up larger questions about policy, practice and training.

“If the state were to begin requiring caseworkers to check the box for, say, opioid use, by what criteria would you instruct that worker to do so?” said Rob Johnson, a spokesman for Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services. “What she suspects? What she observes in the home? What she’s heard from relatives? Or only if corroborated by drug tests? What if there are multiple drugs? How do you develop the guiding policies and training? What happens when a new drug arrives on the scene?”

To get a clearer picture of the issue, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting submitted public records requests to a dozen states where age-adjusted rates of drug overdose deaths are the highest in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What emerged was evidence of a serious crisis with blurred contours.

In Ohio, for example, Attorney General Mike DeWine in August urged residents to become foster parents, citing a wave of kids “who enter the child welfare system because one or both of their parents are drug addicts.”

The number of children in Ohio’s system has increased steadily for years, and the annual cost of foster care has risen more than $100 million since 2011. Foster homes are full in some counties, Mother Jones reported last year. Yet no one’s sure of the exact impact opioids have had. Although caseworkers can select “drug abuse of parent” in the state’s reporting system, that total is most likely an undercount, according to a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Job and Family Services. Plus, there’s significant variation in how such data is collected among the state’s 88 counties.

In West Virginia, more than 6,100 children were in foster care at the beginning of October – the vast majority because of parental drug abuse. And in recent years, the state has seen steady increases in the number of children in care. Yet when it comes to statewide data, there’s no mechanism for sorting by drug type. “Substance abuse” is all that gets logged, according to a representative from the Department of Health and Human Resources.

The list goes on: New Mexico, Kentucky and Utah are seeing surges in foster care placements; none can say for sure how many are due to opioid misuse.

“What we do know anecdotally is that some number are directly linked,” said Adam Pertman, founder of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency. “Because the worker sees the parent, the worker sees the circumstances and can identify the direct link. But for every one they can identify as a direct link, there’s an unknowable number that we can safely assume occur.”

In late 2017, the Associated Press took a step closer to understanding the issue in fine detail. By examining foster care statistics from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, journalists found a correlation between counties with higher levels of opioid prescribing and opioid death and those with higher shares of foster cases linked to drugs.

Their analysis is a good start, but it’s a half-drawn picture of a full-blown crisis. Meanwhile, social workers across the U.S. continue to voice concerns about the detail and integrity of available information.

“We have been to all but one state in the country and asked child welfare professionals if they believe these data represent the prevalence of parental substance use in their cases,” Nancy K. Young, executive director of Children and Family Futures, said in 2016 Senate testimony. “Not a single state believes these data accurately reflect their experience.”

I missed this at the time……. this needs to be shared amongst groups working to change things for children & survivors of child abuse.

I have my own story to tell, of the various ways, that I have been treated.

Yes, shocking, perhaps hard to read…..People have made allegiences, friends, but abused again because they provoke and take advantage of frightened people….offering the ‘cure’.

I was shocked today, to see the IICSAUK retweeting Natasha who has never stopped allowing Sabine, Belinda & other suspects posting on her blog. Just the other day, I was disgusted to see a hollie grieg poster, commenting. Malcolm Ogilvy or George Antonio, AKA George The Greek Trucker on youtube, recently posting videos of the Hampstead children….which has an order banning it in the UK…… How come ?????? Researching Reform has consistantly promoted Andy Peacher, who hosts FreedomTalkRadio , promoted Tory Smith, Kevin Annett, Freeman on the Land artists, Tom Crawford, John Paterson, etc…..

I support the IICSAUK. I want it to be effective. I want Survivors of abuse still suffering to recieve recognition if they have special needs, caused by the abuse, or diabolical treatment, mostly, by the system.

If nothing is done about the vile abuse, I’ve suffered online, since I decided to speak out about the hoaxers/scammers/fraudsters but worst of all amongst them many child abusers……proven guilty….then I will begin publishing even more

Video do not fall for latest Zimbabwe case promoted by John Hemming ? Belinda McKenzie? Just like Musa’s their is already an illegal website Click for interview with Latvian MEP filmed outside recent meeting in Brussels, thanks to the reporter in the hallway, we can steer MEP’s away from charlatans and towards real information, there is alot on the whitelist. Video for education including good links.

Thanks go to one of our supporters, who happened to be outside Maggie Tuttle’s ‘Children Screaming to Be Heard’ conference yesterday afternoon, where he met Neelu Berry, who was h…

Belinda is now the champion of ‘Mckenzie Friends’, in her imaginary world, this is insulting, i’m sure, to the really decent and ethical people, that run good sites, and work hard to be there for people in court……..

All the emotionally loaded disinfo ! Has she NO shame ??? !!! Click the above link for the real deal on the court cases for Witness Intimidation, and having suffered alot of intimidation, personally from quite a few of their co conspirators, i have to wonder, ‘just how long do they think they can keep fooling people ? how long before they show some decency ? some dignity ? some contrition ? let alone make amends for the harm and suffering caused to so many, people and most importantly, CHILDREN !!!! ‘

Click the link and thankyou again Hoaxtead, who have helped provide the evidence and backed up links that has helped the real picture of horrors caused by these ‘saviours’, that we can let people in on the scam.

Share and use the evidence provided, here and through the links from the Black and White Lists.

Their fearmongering is another load of bs. They’ll be rattling that holey bucket, again soon, and tough !!!!

Tim Minchin hit the holy note, and is wholly appreciated, for what he managed to help us smash last week !

Sheva Burton !

And Belinda ! why havn’t you let the troops know that i don’t eat babies, yet ???? or any of the other bullcrap, like what David Shurter and dearman does hampstead site carry ???? The dearman doubleblind, and was that child porn, on there and supposed to come from Ricky Dearman, did it come from Chris Everard ???? cos it sure matches Deb C’s description…….For anyone interested in some deeper real investigation, check out my Youtube playlist CSA Hoaxes….. I’ve got more questions, for you Belinda, but they’ll keep for a bit longer.

This, i heard this, in the first videos that i could only find on Angirifan, which i did, having been alerted by something i saw, and realising who were promoting it, i spent the whole weekend, listening to the whole lot, and talking with a friend who had asked me what i thought…….

This is why i had no doubt and is why, i have no mercy for people that have helped to perpetuate these, false flags, that they have hurt so many, and on top of that pretend to spearhead child protection uk, whilst fiona barnyard bennett has tried the same down under, that belinda, bill , brian , david , and all on my blacklist attempted here UK, tho it is still incomplete, and with regards shared radio platforms, it is the host mentioned, not necessarily the whole platform.

The fake hollie campaign was ignored by many of us while the Troof platforms ran amok with it, given a false illusion that the speakers at the 2010 rally were the go to people, and that we were all too scared to speak out…………

I realised it could happen again, and this time moreso and worse, for us with the growing Inquiries, Commission, and of course the thousands of strong people, that work tirelessly, speak out continuosly, but will have nothing to do with the hampstead hoax or the charlatans and crooks promoting it.